Under the floodlights at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the Round of 12 opener turned fiery when Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota tangled with Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 on Lap 110. Hamlin’s bold move sent Gibbs spinning into the wall, gravel flying, and the crowd holding its breath. Hamlin later owned up, admitting the clash “went too far on my end,” a rare moment of self-reflection from the veteran chasing his first title.

Ty Gibbs, post the race, didn’t say anything else but repeated “Everything’s great! Looking forward to getting back to the racetrack and getting into my race car,” twice, trying hard to keep the diplomacy. Weeks later, the incident’s still a hot topic, and JGR’s young gun has now finally laid it all out at a Charlotte pre-race press conference, offering his take on the wreck and the team’s path forward.

Gibbs’ verdict on the Hamlin wreck

At Charlotte’s media session, a visibly frustrated Ty Gibbs didn’t mince words: “Yeah, I’m sure all the other guys answered it for you, so I’ll just leave it at that, but it’s been good. We’re making progress in the 54 and I’m excited for this week’s race…” The New Hampshire spin, where Hamlin’s aggressive move derailed Gibbs’ playoff run, clearly stung.

JGR’s closed-door meetings focused on mending fences, with leadership keeping details tight but signaling progress. Gibbs’ curt response shows he’s ready to move on, focusing on the next race, while the team sorts out its internal dynamics.

“But you know, hopefully always rooting for JGR to go get a championship … I think I can help as well,” Gibbs added. Despite the wreck, his loyalty to JGR shines through. Turning 23 today, the birthday boy already has a 2022 Xfinity champ and 2023 Cup Rookie of the Year, and wants the team to bag another title, whether it’s him, Hamlin, or Bell crossing the line first. His words echo JGR’s post-meeting vibe: everyone got their say, and the focus is on collective success.

“I mean, I don’t think you’re going to have getting wrecked for sure … It happens sometimes. It’s racing … cars and times are hard to control…” Gibbs said, framing the clash as part of the game. Hamlin’s move, while costly, wasn’t personal, just the chaos of racing.

The incident sparked garage chatter about policing teammate battles, especially when playoff spots are on the line. Gibbs’ 35th-place finish at New Hampshire certainly hurt his momentum, but his shrug-it-off attitude shows a maturing racer who knows bumps come with the territory.

“I think it takes up to have that conversation. I don’t think any team’s got 100 % down. That’s just racing … We’re all out here racing for our own teams but also for the in-house organization as well, so it’s just part of it,” he said. Gibbs gets that JGR’s not perfect at handling intra-team scraps; no one is.

Hamlin’s apology for going “too far” set the tone for their talks, and Gibbs’ take reflects a balance: race hard for yourself, but don’t tank the team. It’s a tightrope JGR’s walked before, like when Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. battled fiercely in 2019, and Gibbs’ perspective shows he’s ready to keep pushing without burning bridges.

Gibbs’ focus on JGR’s bigger picture connects to Denny Hamlin’s own frustrations, not just with on-track incidents but with NASCAR’s broader struggles.

Hamlin’s TV ratings gripe ties to team drama

On his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin tackled the sport’s 13% TV ratings drop in 2025, a sore spot for him as both a JGR driver and 23XI Racing co-owner with Michael Jordan. “(The ratings are) just not good,” he said.  “I mean, we signed the deal that we signed. We obviously lost a significant amount of network races in this TV deal. In each one of the TV deals that we’ve signed over the last few years or the past few agreements that we’ve had, we’ve always just taken the most amount of money.”

The $7.7 billion media deal through 2031 prioritized cash over exposure, splitting races across FOX, NBC, Amazon, Peacock, and The CW for Xfinity.“It’s not been about what’s going to put us on in most households,” Hamlin vented. “We were the guinea pigs to get channel X off the ground, channel Y off the ground, and it’s just you’re asking so much of your fans to just keep chasing you around all these different networks.”

The fragmented broadcast, Cup on four platforms, Xfinity on The CW, Trucks on FOX/FS1, echoes 2001’s multi-network mess, when fans griped about flipping channels to find races. Hamlin’s point ties to Gibbs’ incident: internal JGR drama like their wreck grabs headlines, but losing viewers to a scattered TV deal hurts the sport’s visibility, making every race and every clash matter more.

Gibbs’ push for a JGR championship is part of keeping fans tuned in, even as Hamlin fights to make NASCAR’s product more accessible.